• Says former president can’t try such with northern emirs, Benin monarchs
By Olakunle Olafioye
Collapsing traditional institution in Nigeria risks further dip except urgent radical steps are taken to arrest the situation.
This was the view of the Vice President (Southwest), Historical Society of Nigeria, Dr. Fidelis Enang Egbe.
Egbe who condemned some recent mistreatments of traditional rulers by the political class in the country, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s controversial outburst against some monarchs in Oyo State, said all hope is not lost on the once reverred and venerated institution in Nigeria. He speaks more in this interview.
Former President Obasanjo recently berated some Oyo traditional rulers for allegedly disrespecting the state governor. What does this show about traditional institution in Nigeria?
It is the practical manifestation of the negative impact of colonialism. In precolonial era, our traditional institution was highly functional while our traditional rulers were highly reverred and venerated. They were regarded as supreme and next to the gods. It was so well structured such that the rulers understood very clearly what leadership was. However, with the coming of the colonialists, the traditional rulers lost that venerated position. Few reasons can be blamed for this. One, the traditional rulers were used as tools by the colonialists. The traditional institution was destroyed and the powers of the kings were also destroyed along with it. In the post-colonial era power was handed over to democratically elected government. At this point, the democratically elected government emanated from the colonialists. So, the traditional institution in the post colonial era also suffered the same fate it suffered during colonial rule such that the constitution of Nigeria placed the elected officials higher than the traditional rulers. So to this extent, giving the constitution provisions of the powers of the president and the governors, the traditional rulers find themselves under the rulership of the president and the governors. In other words, when they are at formal ceremonies as they were in Oyo State, traditional rulers are supposed to stand up and respect the position of the governor and the president. From this perspective we could say former President Obasanjo was right to have pointed out that the kings needed to stand up in honour of the governor. However, Obasanjo was wrong and very insulting to have reproached, commanded and humiliated these royal fathers in public and in the manner he did. You could see that the Obas were scared and they stood up like primary school children immediately. That was a rude command to royal fathers. He could have allowed the matter to die down after reproaching them instead of ordering them to stand up after the reprimand.
Beyond this, the traditional institution has been overtly politicized such that it is state governors that decide who becomes a king. What would you say is responsible for this level of interference of the political class in the selection process of traditional rulers in Nigeria?
It is corruption. While the constitution gives the governor the powers to install a king, he does not have the power to appoint who becomes the king. We have the king makers whose major duty is to choose who becomes the king. That traditional role has not been abolished. These kingmakers know the history of the community and know the royal families as well as the turn of who it is to rule. It is after they must have chosen the right candidate to become the next king that the governor can now hand over staff of authority to such traditional ruler. However it is not in the power of the governor to appoint traditional ruler for the people. Any governor who does that is being unnecessarily overbearing. There will always be protests from any community where the governor imposed the traditional ruler. The traditional rulers also have their own blame. The way politics is being played in Nigeria has made everybody to be friendly with whoever is in power in order to be able to get their own share of the national or the state cake. So, the kingmakers too have become very corrupt that morality, integrity, truthfulness is departing from many of them. So once the governor identifies whom he wishes to make the king, all the kingmakers do is just to collect money from the governor and then appointment the person. And then the subjects begin to protest because they know who will truly serve their interest. So, it is purely corruption.
How would you say the interference from the political class has impacted on the traditional institution in Nigeria?
The implication is that our traditional institution is speedily losing its value. You no longer see men and women of integrity in our traditional institution. Our traditional rulers have become more like politicians because they have allowed partisan politics into the politics of traditional institution, which was pure in the past. Yes, the traditional institution had its own issues, but they were not as dirty as we have it in the partisan politics. So, the negative implication is that our traditional institution is speedily collapsing. That is why it was possible for the former President Obasanjo to shout and command Obas to stand up. Can Obasanjo treat the Oba of Benin in similar manner? No, it won’t happen. The reason is that the Benin traditional institution has remained sacred, strong and firm. Obasanjo will never do that to Oba of Benin. In the first place, the Oba of Benin will never bring himself down. The Benin traditional institution is one of the most reverred in Nigeria today. The Oba of Benin is one of the most regarded monarchs in the world. The Oba of Benin does not meddle into politics the way most traditional rulers do. Similarly, if Obasanjo had gone to the North, he probably would not be able to do that to the emirs in the North.
Without clearly spelt out constitutional roles for the traditional institution, what do you think can be done to make the traditional institution remain relevant in the contemporary time considering the fact that most of today’s youths lack the knowledge of the roles the institution played in the past?
We are Africans. We have respect and our values, traditions and cultures in some places are still being practiced and adhered to. The youths expect that the traditional rulers would be models, custodians of our culture and traditions. By culture and traditions, I mean our values of seeing elders as people to be respected. We respect age; we respect constituted authorities. The youths expect to see traditional rulers who will not take bribes, who will not see the truth and tell lies even if they have to die in defense of the truth . They expect to see traditional rulers who will be above board who will insulate themselves from the kind of politics our politicians play. However, because of the negative impact of colonialism on the traditional institution and the impact of the unnecessary incursion of the political office holders on traditional institution in their communities the traditional rulers have lost these values. Many of them are now looking for means of relevance and survival. So most of them now use their positions not to set good example, but to adore tenured political office holders. These are the same set of traditional rulers that governors, when they are seeking to be elected, go before and prostrate to seek their blessings. But once they win and get to the corridor of power they will begin to fight the same traditional institution. The youths in our society now understand that traditional rulers are no longer playing the role expected of them. They have lost this as a result of the influence of partisan politics on traditional institution . Except there are clear constitutional roles for our traditional rulers, their power and relevance will continue to diminish. And in the next 15 to 20 years, you may see an Oba pass by without being accorded the necessary recognition because by then traditional rulers may have lost their values and relevance completely if the situation is not addressed.
How best do you think the traditional institution can be strengthened in order to restore the value and relevance of the this once reverred institution?
The traditional institution can be strengthened through the knowledge of history. In most communities and in our educational system, the role history plays as the custodian of our collective knowledge and collective memory, is lost. And because the role of history is lost, people don’t understand the background to events, how things have happened over time, what took place? It is commonly said that not to know what happened before you were born is to forever remain a child. We don’t know our history and when we don’t know our history we will lose our identity. When we lose our identity we lose our values. The traditional institution can only be strengthened if we know our history, if there is a deliberate policy by the government to let the youths understand the relevance of history in our national life. This is why the Historical Society of Nigeria continues to campaign to promote the study of history. For example from 8th to 11th of October , the Historical Society of Nigeria will be discussing the Nigerian environment since the precolonial era and this discussion on the traditional institution will definitely emerge at that conference which will come up in Lagos. So until we go back to our history as a nation we may not be able to rescue our traditional institution from complete collapse.